Green on Blue: A Novel - Softcover

"With a tension and tenderness reminiscent of Graham Greene, Elliot Ackerman's gripping novel of revenge and honor deftly reveals the complex machinations of a too often oversimplified war."--Alexander Maksik, author of You Deserve Nothing and A Marker to Measure Drift

"The chief pleasures of Ackerman's novel derive from its striking descriptions of men at war...Like all novels written in skilled, unadorned prose about men and women of action, this novel will probably be compared to Hemingway's work. In this case, however, the comparison seems unusually apt...Elliot Ackerman has done something brave as a writer and even braver as a soldier: He has touched, for real, the culture and soul of his enemy."--Tom Bissell "New York Times Book Review "

"Ackerman's novel is bleak and uncompromising, a powerful war story that borders on the noir."--Publishers Weekly

"This is the best novel of the Afghan-Iraq wars to date, striking a lyrical cord akin and equal in power to Hemingway's For Whom The Bell Tolls. Elliot Ackerman captures both the deep brutality and the innate humanity of the Afghan Pashtun world and its collision with the west in clear, cold strokes. This fearless and pitch perfect first novel is a heart-breaking wonder."--Admiral James Stavridis, USN (Ret), former NATO Supreme Allied Commander and Dean of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University

"Green on Blue is a novel that conveys, with harrowing power, the fallout that decades of war (going back through the Soviet occupation of the 1980s) has had on that country's people, and at the same time, it's a kind of Greek tragedy about the cycles of revenge and violence that can consume families and tribes, generation after generation...This novel as a whole attests to Mr. Ackerman's breadth of understanding -- an understanding not just of the seasonal rhythms of war in Afghanistan and the harsh, unforgiving beauty of that land, not just of the hardships of being a soldier there, but a bone-deep understanding of the toll that a seemingly endless war has taken on ordinary Afghans who have known no other reality for decades."--Michiko Kakutani "New York Times "

"Green on Blue is harrowing, brutal, and utterly absorbing. With spare prose, Ackerman has spun a morally complex tale of revenge, loyalty, and brotherly love. The saga of young Aziz is a chilling and often disturbing glimpse into one of the world's most troubled regions."--Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner

"Green on Blue is a standout both for its setting and for the austere grace of its prose. But what sets the novel apart in the annals of American war literature is its daring shift in perspective: It's written not from the point of view of an American soldier, but that of an Afghan boy...With understated grandeur, a portrait of Afghanistan in microcosm takes shape, one in which profit and peace are at odds, lines of allegiance are constantly being redrawn, and coming-of-age entails a swift initiation into moral ambiguity and brutality...The result is compassionate, provocative, and alive to the tremendous narrative risk involved in taking on the gaze of the "other" try imagining Apocalypse Now from the perspective of the South Vietnamese."--Megan O'Grady "VOgue.com "

"What makes Green on Blue so brilliantly poignant is Elliot Ackerman's feeling of empathy, his ability to get under his characters' skin, reminding us not only of our vast differences but of our shared humanity."--Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran

"If we're looking for answers--and after fourteen years of war we damn well better be--Elliot Ackerman's brilliant, audacious novel is an excellent place to start. For so many years the war has been about "us" and "them," but Green on Blue blows open the standard narrative by showing just how fluid and fraught that distinction can be. If we're tempted to think this war has been simple and clean, Ackerman's unflinching novel should wake us up to the messy, heartbreaking reality of it all."--Ben Fountain, author of Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk

"Green on Blue is a remarkable achievement, a novel of war, betrayal, love, and honor that feels equally timeless and timely. Aleksander Solzhenitsyn once wrote that the line dividing good and evil doesn't run between nations, but through every human heart. Elliot Ackerman traces that shifting line with enormous empathy and intelligence."--Anthony Marra, author of A Constellation of Vital Phenomena

An Afghani orphan loses everything when his village is attacked by militants and must join a U.S.-funded militia to try to save his injured brother, who fell victim to a marketplace bomb.